Nicola Sturgeon will outline her plans for a second independence referendum on Tuesday.
The First Minister will address MSPs in the Scottish Parliament after a general election result that saw the SNP lose 21 MPs in a campaign largely dominated by the constitutional question north of the border.
Her announcement, in a tweet before the parliament’s decision making body announced any approval for a statement, came as the Scottish Greens demanded she stick to her original time-frame of holding a vote between autumn next year and spring 2019.
I'll be seeking agreement of @ScotParl to make a statement later today on the way forward for Scotland after the General Election.
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) June 27, 2017
It has been widely reported that Ms Sturgeon will push any talk of a second ballot back until after the Brexit negotiations have concluded, a view pushed by left-wing Nationalist MP Tommy Sheppard in the immediate aftermath of June’s election.
That would leave the threat on the table for the UK Government but would cease continual discussion of the issue at a time when the SNP’s domestic record, on education in particular, is in sharp focus.
David Mundell, the Scottish Secretary, has said he cannot see the UK Government approving a second referendum until after the 2021 Holyrood election.
Patrick Harvie and Maggie Chapman, the co-conveners of the Scottish Greens, the only other pro-independence party in the Scottish Parliament, wrote to Ms Sturgeon on Tuesday morning urging her not to flinch on her plans.
They said: “We hope that you will resist the calls from opponents who have conceded to a hard Brexit and who demand that the Scottish Government abandons the objective of holding an independence referendum and giving the people of Scotland a choice over our collective future.
“That choice would be between the angry, isolated Brexit Britain the current Westminster government are constructing or putting Scotland’s future in Scotland’s hands as an independent country at the heart of Europe.
“In such a choice the Scottish Greens will of course campaign for our longstanding policy of independence and full European Union membership.”
